Nos Necessities: How to do nitrous properly

22Nov08

Yes, there have been deaths attributed to nitrous, and a lot of them are preventable. If you must take it, follow this simple list and avoid a lot of the dangers – though I cannot protect you from brain cell death nor instant death from nitrogen bubbles in your brain.

✔ Keep breathing oxygen it is a myth that to trip you need to avoid oxygen altogether and just breathe nitrous. You need a percentage of oxygen (50/50 is good if you want to avoid brain cell death) for the nitrous to work.

✖ Don’t take it in enclosed, unventilated areas, because you could asphyxiate. This means you die due to lack of oxygen. Stay away from cars, unless they’re moving and the windows are open, and even then, stay away from them unless you’re inside one. Asphyxiation accounts for most ‘nitrous deaths’.
✖ Never use a bag to recycle your breath, never put your head into any kind of container, never climb into a garbage bag. If you must reuse your breath, use a balloon, for it will fly away when you’re out of it and leave you breathing normally.
✖ Never have anything in your mouth for you will no doubt choke on it (gum etc.).
✔ Ensure that your body is in a comfortable, balanced position (I.e. SITTING, never standing, and as close to lying down as sitting can get), where you don’t have to even hold up your own head, as close to the floor as possible, leaning back.

✔ Baby-proof your surroundings – it sounds silly but you really could hurt yourself on something which you could usually handle well, if you try to handle the object in a nossed state. Avoid the hot, the cold, the pointy and the heavy altogether.
✔ Be supervised, but not too supervised; ideally, someone will be loading your nitrous for you because your motor “skills” on nos cannot be trusted to carry out a difficult procedure. Avoid fumbling around, wasting trip time and whanging your head with the machine by delegating everything you need to the loader, taking it in turns. Seeing someone else look at you will pull you out of the dissociated daze and make you self-aware, which can be fun, intense, or make you paranoid; to prevent risking the latter tell the loader, and anyone else, to stay the hell out of your field of view, or close your eyes.
✔ Use a GOOD machine, never a cracker, never an old, leaky machine. Soda siphons are actually safer because the cream whipping nozzle doesn’t mess your mouth up. Without this, you run the risk of frostbite – and internally freezing your lungs.

Nitrous binds to the same part of the brain as opiates – which bind to the same part of the brain as the feeling of closeness in relationships. After a lot of self-reflection, I realised that I was taking it mostly when I was lonely. I would wait until I was on mushrooms/acid, and convince myself I was taking it as a psychonaut, to visit other dimensions – in reality, I was just escaping a feeling of not being connected. I took so much of it that my hands stopped working properly and I would feel weak for days after having it. I do not regret my experiences with it, as I do not believe in having regrets, and everything in my past made me the person I am now – but I no longer advocate for Nitrous Inhalation nor delude myself into believing that I was a “substance enthusiast” rather than a drug addict. I was addicted. Now I am free, and much happier than I ever was while using.